It is one of a series of developments being worked on by the States Greffe, which is responsible for supporting the work of the States Assembly.
Any change to the existing system, which relies on Islanders manually registering to vote, would require a law change. It would also need investment in new software.
As part of a package of work, the States Greffe is also investigating how a move to online voting at the general election in 2022 might work. It will be linked to government efforts to issue Islanders with digital IDs which will then be used to access a range of services.
The aim is to firm up both the automatic voter registration system and online voting proposals by the end of next year.
At the 2014 election in Jersey, 62,566 people were registered to vote. Of those, 40 per cent actually cast a vote. That compares with a 69 per cent turnout at last year’s UK general election, and 72 per cent in Guernsey in 2016.
Chile, Finland, Germany, Israel, Italy, South Korea and Switzerland, as well as seven states in the USA, have automatic voter registration.
A study by officials in Oregon say it has helped improve turnout in a state which has been historically much lower than the US average.
Greffier Mark Egan, writing in his 2018 business plan report, said: ‘Parliamentary outcomes can be difficult to measure. If turnout falls at an election, to what extent can that be attributed to the publicity campaign about the election, the quality of candidates, public perceptions about whether the election needs to deliver change, or something as simple as the weather?’
He adds their work is ‘undermined’ by low political engagement in Jersey and that it plans to gather data on who votes in this May’s general election to better plan for 2022.
